Guiding voice of a record breaking Pikes Peak Hill Climb?

One such example is Ryan Schnell of RS Motorsport In Motion based here in Denver. He was drafted as co-driver for driver Dave Carapetyan of Rally Ready Motorsports. The two will attempt to break the Open Class record of 11:21 – currently held by a factory Saab team – with their heavily modified Mitsubishi Evolution 8. For comparison, no car has ever completed the climb in under 10 minutes – another record that the Unlimited Class cars are after this year. Competition in the Open Class is ferocious, so Schnell’s team has spent untold hours and dollars preparing both mechanically and mentally.

 

Schnell says building a winning car is a matter of, “making the right compromises”. For example, the course is 70% paved asphalt and 30% dirt so teams have to select a tire compound that balances grip and durability on both surfaces. When tuning the engine and turbo boost, if the engineers string the motor out to make every possible bit of horsepower it will never endure the stress of the 100% uphill load to the top.  However the car is no slouch either – 0 to 60 mph in just over 3 seconds and 600 horsepower at the wheels – but that power will be reduced by 30% or more during the climb as the ambient oxygen levels decline. Some changes to the car are more straightforward – carbon fiber body panels to save weight, a special ECU that tricks the giant turbo into maintaining boost off throttle, and a coil over suspension package tuned by Bilstein just for the Pikes Peak climb.

 

Driver and co-driver have some tuning to do as well. The pair must operate in a perfectly synchronized spoken-driven dance. “My life is in the driver’s hands and his life is in my voice” says Schnell. Notes on each of the 156 turns are written out in a notebook with mileage markers plotted out on a computer mounted in front of the passenger seat. Should the pair ever get lost – and it happens – the computer mileage log can help reset the pace in the notebook. At the apex of each corner the co-driver reads a coded sequence of instructions for the next corner. For example, “right 3 tightens into 700” would mean a right turn of medium (on a scale from 1 to 6) decreasing radius followed by a 700 yard straightaway. Since the Pikes Peak course is normally a public road, the two will only have opportunities to practice the sequence of directions together out of the cockpit or at legal speeds in a street car.

 

Co-drivers must endure the roller coaster ride up the mountain without getting nauseated and without qualms over not being in control of the car. Moreover, each spoken word must be accurate, clear and calm. Drawing on your own personal experience with “back seat drivers” you can imagine that not every personality is cut out for this job. Ryan Schnell is an exception to this rule – it will be his fifth opportunity to co-drive the Pikes Peak event, a race he has been watching and dreaming about every year since he was a child. Someday he hopes to be behind the wheel, but until big sponsorship comes knocking he’s thrilled to be driving with his voice.

 

The 2009 Pikes Peak Hill Climb will be held Sunday July 19. Buy tickets and read tips about spectating on the Hill Climb website.  Before you go, get a sense of what Rally racing is all about by watching this infamous video of driver Ari Vatanen attacking Pikes Peak in 1989.